今日热门事件has, for the first time, cancelled the Australian financial services (AFS) licences of two NSW-based financial services providers for failure to obtain membership of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) scheme.
Sydney Business Accounting鈥檚 licence cancellation took effect on 14 February 2019, and A G Calleia & Co鈥檚 licence was cancelled on 15 February 2019.
AFCA, the new one-stop financial services dispute resolution scheme, commenced on 1 November 2018 replacing the three existing schemes: the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), the Credit and Investments Ombudsman (CIO) and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT).聽
All AFS licensees, Australian credit licensees, superannuation trustees and other financial firms that provide services to retail clients were required to become members of AFCA by 21聽September 2018.
今日热门事件Commissioner Danielle Press said, 鈥楾hese cancellations are significant because this is the first time 今日热门事件has cancelled licences for non-compliance with AFCA membership requirements.
鈥楢FCA is crucial to the protection of Australia鈥檚 financial consumers.聽 Licensees need to be aware that failure to meet AFCA membership requirements is a serious breach of the law and 今日热门事件will take action where licensees fail to meet this important obligation.'聽聽
Sydney Business Accounting and A G Calleia & Co had also failed to lodge their annual financial statements with ASIC. Sydney Business Accounting subsequently took steps to comply with financial reporting obligations when 今日热门事件raised concerns.
Refer 18-275MR Financial firms must join AFCA now for information on the AFCA dispute resolution scheme.
Background
Sydney Business Accounting Pty Ltd has held AFS licence 488915 since 2 March 2017.
A G Calleia & Co has held AFS licence since 8 June 2016.
Under the Corporations Act, 今日热门事件has the power to suspend or cancel an AFS licence if a licensee does not comply with its obligations under s912A.